1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus. Particularly, the present invention relates to a printing apparatus which processes the PDL(Page Description Language) data transmitted from a host and prints the resultant data.
2. Description of the Related Art
An apparatus which processes PDL data, for example, a printing apparatus including a PDL printing function, is configured to include an extension board to reduce the PDL processing time, that is, the print processing time, or to increase the number of types of PDL data that can be processed.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-210275 discloses a multifunction peripheral which determines the type of PDL data received via a main board and switches boards to perform processing. In addition, some apparatus is configured to allow both a main board and an extension board to process the same type of PDL data. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-236039 discloses a multifunction system which automatically switches processing partitions depending on the performance of the CPU mounted on an optional board.
Recently, there have been strong demands for power-saving of devices, in particular, and many devices have been configured to automatically change to the power-saving mode when they are not used for a predetermined time. For example, some printing apparatus is configured to change to the power-saving mode by being triggered when no print job is received for a predetermined time, and to return from the power-saving mode to the normal operation mode upon reception of a print job.
In many cases, it takes much time to return from the power-saving mode because of the need to perform system initialization to some extent. When pursuing power saving, for example, the power supply to a sensor may be stopped, and the power supply to a memory may be cut off. This leads to the inability to hold the information and statuses which have been held by energization. As a result, the number of elements to be initialized tends to increase. This means that it is impossible to quickly meet a processing request from the user, and the waiting time for the user increases.
Under the circumstances, more demands have arisen for systems which quickly meet requests from the users while promoting power saving.
In addition, even when the power supply is ON, an initialization waiting time is required as in the case of returning from the power-saving mode. There are also demands for waiting time reduction at the time of power ON.
According to the related art, it is possible to implement efficient processing partition in accordance with the processing performance of a PDL processing block on a main board and the processing performance of a PDL processing block on an extension board in a controller in a so-called “steady state” after the startup of a printing apparatus.
However, the related art gives consideration neither to the return time from the power-saving mode and the startup time as described above, nor to the waiting time until the completion of initialization. This makes it impossible to reduce or optimize the time taken for the start of processing at the startup time of the apparatus or at the time of return from the power-saving mode.